


'haha no im definitely not bleeding to death lmao'

by cephelanthus



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alcohol, Blood, Blood Loss, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Happy Ending, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, Light Swearing, Partying, Tokubetsu Jonin, Unconsciousness, but in a group, dont be fooled by the number of chapters. theyre fairly short., friends making fun of each other for getting hurt, i couldnt decide between a more serious hurt/comfort and more fun light dialogue so now its both, im absolutely great at coming up with fic titles and chapter titles what are you talking about??, mostly written from raidos perspective but changes occasionally, yamato is also there but hes basically just a slightly larger prop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-01-23 11:07:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18548539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cephelanthus/pseuds/cephelanthus
Summary: Yamato has been kidnapped again, and Raido leads his friends on a mission to rescue him.Obviously, it doesn't go as well as it should.(this is nothing more than a simple, light-hearted (?) fic, just because i wanted more content for these characters and in particular them together as a group)





	1. Raido is allowed to go out with his friends

Captain Yamato had been captured by the enemy. Again. _Poor guy can't catch a break_ , Raido thought to himself as he let his eyes wander trough the room. It was stock full of people who were here to sign up for a mission to rescue Yamato. Almost all of the Jonin in Raidos age group were here, from Genma, Aoba and him to Guy in his wheelchair and Kurenai who had her child strapped to her back. Iwashi stood near Genma and Raido, as he was the third member of the Hokage Guard Platoon. They were joined by Kotetsu and Izumo, who were currently talking over each other in trying to convince the Hokage to let them come along, as well as several other Chuu-nin and Jonin. Also, what seemed like half of the entire ANBU forces were gathered in the room, sitting on windowsills, the shelves and one of them even hanging from the ceiling. 

There were roughly 20 people gathered in the Hokage's office right now, and everyone, without any exception, was fired up to save Yamato. 

They hadn't gotten word out to the Konoha 11 or anyone in their age group, since that would have inevitably activated Naruto. And Naruto would definitely have wanted to come along to save his team captain. Besides the sheer chaos and unpredictability that came from having Naruto on a mission, the Jinjuuriki was still recovering in the hospital, and was also still one-armed. 

The only exception to their unspoken rule to keep this between the older ninja was Shikamaru, who was on his usual place behind the Hokage and looked even more annoyed than usual. The _'what a drag'_ was practically dripping from his face. 

Kakashi looked increasingly exasperated as everyone yelled at him to let them come along. Guy was currently bothering him by leaning over the desk and grasping his clothes, crying something along the lines of "Yamato is such a pure soul, we have to save him". The ANBU members were murmuring among themselves or occasionally shouting "Let's save Tenzou!" or "We need him back!". It was as loud and chaotic as you would imagine. 

After Yamato had been pulled from his ANBU duties to substitute for Kakashi and have an eye on Naruto, his reputation in the village had increased drastically. Not only because his invaluable wood style - which had been a huge asset both in battle and in house-rebuilding - he was an incredibly reliable ninja, good partner and great team leader. More than that, he was just generally a pleasant person to be around. He was serious and well-prepared on missions and would always make his team members feel safe. But he also had a good sense of humor and always had an ear to listen to people. He was quiet and reserved, but everyone had gotten along with him incredibly well. Because of that, all of them were pumped up to get him back right now. 

Kakashi let out a loud sigh and stood up, slamming his hands on the desk in the process. The crowded room went quiet. 

"Alright", Kakashi started. Despite being annoyed with the lot of ninjas in his office, he had a dark spark in his eyes that betrayed his true feelings. Raido knew how close he and Yamato were, so Kakashi must have been the one that wanted to see him back safely the most. 

"As you probably could have guessed, i can't let all of you go to save Tenzou. I mean, Yamato." Disappointed murmuring went trough the room. Kakashi looked to his right. 

"Guy. You're still hurt, and in a wheelchair. I can't let you go." Guy crossed his arms, offended. He started sulking. 

"Kurenai.", Kakashi continued. "Please take care of your child. I know you trust them, but i don't think Kiba and Shino are the best babysitters for more than 15 minutes." Kurenai simply sighed and complied. 

"Next..." Kakashi looked up, trough the room. "I can't let the ANBU go. I need you here in the village, and to carry out other high-priority missions. I'm sorry." Loud, mask-muffled grumbling was heard throughout the room. The ANBU members started to leave, disappointed. They made a point to leave slowly trough the door (instead of just flickering away like they would usually do), one by one, each of them staring at Kakashi trough their masks to express their disgruntlement. It took a while for all of them to leave, but finally the room was much emptier. 

Kakashi left out an exasperated sigh once more, looking over the people left. He thought about who would be the most skilled people left, and who was most likely to succeed in this mission. 

"Okay everyone, we'll go in a four-man-squad, containing me, Aoba, Raido and Genma.", he finally said. Raido felt adrenaline rushing trough him in excitement. 

"No fair! Why do you get to go!", Guy immediately started. 

Shikamaru nodded. "Hokage-sama, you know that we need you here. You can't leave the village right now, so shortly after the war. There are still a lot of things to be sorted out." 

Kakashi scoffed and gritted his teeth. He tried not to let it shine trough, but everyone in the room could see that he wanted to save Yamato himself, as soon as possible. However, Kakashi wasn't stupid. He knew that it was unreasonable for him to go himself. 

Izumo stepped forward. "Please, Hokage-sama, let Kotetsu and me go instead." 

Kotetsu agreed, serious for once. "Yeah. We will definitely save Yamato-senpai."

Kakashi stared at the two chuu-nin. He knew they were capable, but he didn't like having to stay back. 

"So, a five-people team? Isn't that a little unconventional?" Shikamaru asked. "They might get noticed easier." He didn't have any malice in his voice, he was just considering the options. 

All of them stared at the Hokage. Izumo and Kotetsu were nodding at him, all fired up. Aoba had his arms crossed, and his expression was unreadable as usual with his sunglasses, but he seemed more determined than normal. Genma was chewing on his senbon so hard that you could hear the metal clanking against his teeth. Even Raido himself, who usually tried his best to appear calm and collected, had a spark in his eyes, burning with the desire to get Yamato back. He was important to them, and they all knew they had been taking him for granted. 

Shikamaru scratched the back of his head. "Sheesh, what a drag..."

Kakashi sighed once more. "Ahh, guess i have no choice then. Alright, the five of you go. Raido, you're the group captain." He handed Raido a folder with all available info they had to that mission. "Please make your preparations and leave as soon as possible." Raido felt a burst of pride welling up in his chest. He was absolutely determined to do his best.

"Yes, sir!", all of them shouted and disappeared in a flash. 


	2. Raido and his friends have a sleepover

Not an hour later, they all had their things packed for a mission of multiple days, and left the village under Raidos lead as soon as they had all gathered at the front gate of Konoha. While travelling trough the ever so conveniently placed trees of the fire country, Raido started to explain where they would start their search, and what he had gathered from reading the mission files. 

"Okay everyone, our first move will be to go to the location where Yamato was seen last. It's about two days east of Konoha. He was still supposed to take it slow after being captured for so long during the war, so he was on a C-Rank mission. He was supposed to protect Iruka and his class during their school trip, and it was not expected to be a mission involving combat. However, according to Iruka, Yamato had been attacked during the night."

Izumo tilted his head in bewilderment. "Only Yamato-san?"

"Yeah." Raido confirmed. "He was guarding the Motel the kids were staying in from a safe distance. Iruka said he woke up when he heard battle noises, however couldn't find anything as he looked out the window. Since he didn't want to leave the children, he waited until morning, only to find Yamato gone entirely."

The group fell silent for a few seconds, the only noises being the rushing of wind in their ears and the occasional tapping when their feet were pushing off of tree branches. 

"That doesn't seem like him.", Aoba pondered. 

Genma shot him a glance. "Remember that he was kidnapped for months. He had his chakra suppressed the entire time, and probably was tortured and poisoned and what not..."

Kotetsu gulped. The war was still vividly in the younger ninjas memory, and he could only imagine what different kinds of shit the tokubetsu jonin had gone trough. He and Izumo did their part, but they were just regular chuu-nin. They were neither as skilled as the other three, who had fought at the front line next to the hokage - since Genma and Raido were part of the Hokage Guard Platoon - ; nor did they have a rare and wanted kekkei genkai like Yamatos wood style. Of course he would always be targeted by enemies. 

Aoba jumped off an tree particularly harsh, breaking off pieces of bark. "We definitely have to get there as soon as possible."

All of them agreed. 

 

* * *

 

They traveled quickly for the rest of the day, and a good portion of the night. They had some idle conversation, but none of them were really up for small talk and due to the tense atmosphere the conversations broke off swiftly each time. 

Finally, Raido jumped down from their path along the tree branches and stopped. The others quickly gathered behind him. 

"Alright.", he said, turning around. "We'll camp here and sleep for a few hours. It's no good tiring us out, that won't save anyone. Also, we are working under the assumption that the enemy has kidnapped Yamato, so they would want to keep him alive, right? If they wanted to kill him, there would have been a body or at least more signs of battle." The others nodded, however, Raido mostly said this to calm himself down. _I really hope i'm right in this assumption..._ , he thought to himself, nervously biting his lip.

All of them gathered and took off their bags and headbands to sleep more comfortably, however they kept their protective flak jackets on. They were on a mission, after all. Silently, they all ate some of their packed meals or food pills, then each of them looked for a tree to lean against and settled down. 

Kotetsu lifted his arm. "I'll have the first guard, if that's fine with you."

Raido nodded. "Izumo, do you want to take the second? You can switch after three hours."

The duo agreed, eager to make themselves useful. Kotetsu swiftly jumped up into the lower branches of the tree in the middle of their group. 

Genma sighed, taking out the senbon of his mouth and fiddling with it. "I suppose we should all get some rest."

"Yeah." Aoba crossed his arms, settling back against the tree he was leaning on and tried to make himself comfortable. 

Raido looked up towards the stars. The sky was clear, and a slight breeze was the only thing disturbing the dense forest. The atmosphere was tense. He wasn't as good at small talk as Genma, for example, but tried to come up with something to break the ice in the group. "It's so quiet. Reminds me of that one mission where we traveled to the Land of Waves with the Fourth..."

Genma chuckled. "You were so nervous since you wanted to impress him, right Raido?"

"Well, I, i-it was our first mission as the Hokage Guard Squad after all!" That was absolutely not the point Raido had wanted to bring up with this story. 

"Ohhh? Captain Raido, you were on a mission with the fourth Hokage?" Izumo asked, visibly impressed. Raido scratched the scar on his nose, flustered, and nodded.

Genma laughed at his slightly blushing Teammate. Then, he shot a smile at Izumo. "Yeah, we were in the Hokage Guard Platoon back then, too. It was really... something. He didn't have the name 'The Yellow Flash of Konoha' for nothing." His voice turned soft, somber. Then he looked at Aoba, who seemed to pout. "Aoba is still jealous of us to that day." 

"Aww Genma, stop teasing him.", Raido told him warmheartedly, glad that the conversation wasn't about him anymore. "You know he was busy at that time." Raido had a teasing undertone himself, and he and Genma grinned at Aoba gleefully. 

Izumo got curious, obviously, glancing at an sweaty Aoba. "What happened?"

"Nothing.", Aoba said, voice cracking. "We really should sleep now, right?" He made a point of resting against the tree and turning away from his traitorous teammates. 

Izumo looked back at Genma, who happily provided, leaning in with a mischievous grin. "It was when he first learned to handle his trademark summoning jutsu... Well, lets just say, he didn't look as hot anymore after he had been attacked by dozens of angry confused crows. He was in the hospital for almost two weeks."

Izumo was unable to keep his composure at that mental image and burst into laughter. A barely stifled chuckle from above them told Raido that Kotetsu was just as amused. 

"Legends say, that under his sunglasses, he still has scars of- Ow! Stop it, crow-boy!" Genma looked really proud of himself, until he got a kick to the ribs from Aoba.

This caused even more laughter on the side of Izumo and Kotetsu. Raido had a wide grin on his face himself, despite their grim mission. He tried his best to suppress it, as to not undermine his serious and competent leader persona in front of the younger ninjas. After the group finally fell silent, there was a sigh heard from Aobas side after a few seconds.

"Genma, did i ever tell you that i hate you?"

"On the daily.", Genma said with a sly grin, crossing his arms behind his head and closing his eyes. 

"Ugh, i hope you choke on your stupid toothpick one day." Aoba answered, but there was no true malice in his voice. 

Raido slowly closed his eyes himself, happy to have these people as his friends. And tomorrow, they would save Yamato, too. 

"'Night, then.", he murmured and was met with agreeing mumbles from his teammates.


	3. Raido is trying very hard to be a good leader

"Captain Raido, how much farther is it?" Kotetsu asked. 

"We should be there in a few minutes." The team tensed up.

The had left at sunrise, as early as possible. Nothing of interest happened during the night, and Izumo and Kotetsu didn't really mind missing a few hours of sleep on a mission. Neither of them did, really, they were trained ninja after all. All day, they had traveled as quickly as possible without wasting chakra or overly exhausting themselves. It was already around 4 pm now. 

Raido stared straight ahead. He went trough all the information they had on the mission again, making sure he didn't miss anything. The Motel they were staying at was the first point of investigation. And that was where they were headed right now. Approaching from the forest encasing the small village, they finally arrived at their destination from the back of the Motel. The five of them gathered on the trees right next to the building. 

"We'll split up to investigate.", Raido started his explanation. "Aoba, please send out your crows to get a view from above. Kotetsu, Izumo and me will spread and look trough the forest nearby. Genma, you check out the Motel itself and maybe talk to the staff if they've seen anything, although i doubt it. If any of you find something suspicious, give the signal." Each of them confirmed the orders. 

"Alright. Scatter!" Within a blink, the ninja disappeared from view into different directions, while Aoba started forming hand seals for his crow summoning. 

Raido signaled Kotetsu and Izumo to go left and right, respectively, and hopped a few trees over into the forest. He recalled the mission Yamato had been on. _Where would a ninja position himself to watch over the Motel?_ He looked around carefully, making sure not to miss any details. A large tree near the edge of the forest fell into his eyes. It had a convenient branch on roughly half its height, perfect to stand on and watch over the area. Raido jumped onto it gracefully. 

He studied the tree carefully. He didn't expect to find any footprints, since Yamato was a pro in his field and wouldn't leave such obvious clues to his presence, and also since it had been a week already since the incident. No, what he was looking for were any signs of battle. He bent down to touch the tree bark beneath him. Finally his fingers brushed over an unusual ridge. It was a mark on the tree, like a thrown kunai would make. It was facing forwards, so the Kunai must have come from the direction of the Motel. 

_Probably to force Yamato to retreat deeper into the forest, away from the village_., Raido thought as he jumped one tree over into the opposite direction. This tree had a few more marks on it, and so did the next. _So their first step was to separate him further from the group._ Some of the tree bark was splintered off. Before he had time to investigate further, Raido heard the distinct whistle he had assigned as a signal to alert everyone. It came from a few jumps further into the forest.

He took no time to flicker over, arriving just before Kotetsu did. Izumo was still in the motion of lowering his fingers after sounding the whistle. 

"Well, that was fast. Anyways, i found this." He gesticulated broadly towards the area in front of him. It was not immediately noticeable, but Raido realized that some of the short tree stumps growing out of the ground near a large actual tree were a bit... off. They had a unmistakable, square-based shape to them. 

"Ah! Looks like Yamato's wood style.", Genma spoke everyones mind as he dropped down towards the group. 

Aoba jumped down from the tree next to them directly after. "Looks like they were broken off.", he noted, pushing up his sunglasses. 

Raido agreed. The angular wood pieces were splintered and cut off near the ground. They grew in a circular fashion.

"Maybe he tried protecting himself." Raido could imagine it. Yamato, fighting against the unknown enemies, backed up to the tree, making one of his trademark, shell-shaped protective domes. 

"Seems like it wasn't much use. There's wood splinters everywhere." Izumo noted, wandering a few steps further away from them. "Also, some of this seems broken off by blunt force, but some of the wood branches were cut off with a sword or something similar."

The group continued to look around, finding faint signs of a battle, but no kunai or other weapons. "They cleaned up after the battle." Genma suggested. 

Raido nodded sagely. They followed the battlefield a few more meters, until the clues broke off suddenly. Nothing but bare soil and ripped out grass. _Shit. We can't lose the trail here!_

"He definitely was here. Look for more hints further in the forest.", he commanded his team. They spread out, looking at each tree and every brush of grass. Raido hoped dearly to find something useful, or otherwise they'd have to split up and search in a wider area on their own. He wanted to prevent that, especially with unknown enemy forces to consider. They really didn't have time for this. Who knew how Yamato was holding up currently?

"Ah, Raido, look at this.", Genma called him over calmly. Raido jumped to his side in one swift motion. Genma pointed to a small, unsuspicious tree branch, moving the senbon in his mouth from one side to the other. Raido kneeled down and inspected it closer, passively registering the others had joined them. It seemed like a normal little tree branch at first, with a few little leaves at the end. But as he thought more about it, it was growing from a really weird angle and at a really weird place in the tree, so Raido inched even closer. Ah, there it was. The same distinct angular shape almost all of Yamato's creation had, even though it was just barely noticeable at the origin of the branch. 

"Here's another one." Aoba noted from several trees away, as he had scouted ahead. Raido passed him, quickly clearing a few more trees. 

"Huh, would you look at that... Not bad." A slight smile crept onto Raidos stern face. As he looked ahead, he noted similar branches on the trees ahead, every 50 meters or so. They marked a clear way. Yamato had left them small guides to find him. Not noticeable to civilians and ninja unfamiliar with his kekkei genkai, and definitely not re-creatable by anyone but Yamato himself. _This man really does think of everything._

"Good, let's go."

With new hope, they took off, following Yamato's markers. 

 

However, about an hour later, Raido stopped abruptly. This prompted Kotetsu, who had been following right behind, to slam into him hard and drop to the ground below. 

"Ugh! Captain, what the hell?!", he complained after spitting out a mouthful of sand. Izumo laughed at him shortly, but then dropped down to his friend and pulled him up from the ground by his elbows. 

Raido grit his teeth, ignoring the chuu-nins antics. Genma and Aoba landed next to him on the tree he stopped on, noting his tense demeanor. 

"The trail ends here. There are no other branches."

"Ah, shit." Genma frowned, looking around them.

"No, wait, that's not right.", Aoba said carefully. He jumped a few trees ahead. "There was one of Yamato's branches here, but i's been chopped off." Indeed, there was an angular hole in the next tree. 

Izumo and Kotetsu had followed along on the ground beneath them, observing the area. 

"Eh? Captain Raido, here's blood on the ground!" Raido looked down at Izumos concerned voice. He joined them on the ground. There was a puddle of dried blood, along with some more drips pointing in a northern direction. 

Raido brushed his fingers over the blood. It was dry and crumbled beneath his touch. Kneeling down, he took out a small scroll from his vest and swiped it open. He scraped off some of the dried blood onto a circle on the scroll, then started gathering chakra and made a few hand seals. Aoba had joined next to him, while Genma stayed up in the trees to keep watch. 

A few minutes later, the text on the paper scroll changed and showed available information about the blood sample. "Blood type A, same as Yamato's. Aoba, please check it against the databank."

Aoba nodded and pulled out a deck of cards, containing information about all Konoha ninja. After three simple hand seals from his side, the deck activated, resonated with the blood sample scroll and finally spat out a card. Aoba turned it around. "Yup, that's Yamato's."

"Was he attacked?" Kotetsu wondered. 

Raido tried to think quick. "If he was wounded before, there should have been blood at the battlefield."

"Considering the cut off branch... Maybe they figured out he was leaving markers while they kidnapped him? So they must have, you know, shut him up.", Aoba offered as an explanation. Izumo and Kotetsu shuddered.

"Hmm. Sounds fairly reasonable...", Raido agreed hesitantly. "Let's head in the direction the branches were showing before, and hope that he is still alive."

"Wouldn't they chance course after seeing that he left guides?", said Izumo. 

"Hmm, probably. But we don't know where they would have gone, so we may as well follow their original path. They probably wanted to go to their hideout in a direct way. We don't have much other choices anyways."

They agreed and continued on their way. Raido noticed that Genma, who was dashing trough the trees next to him, was looking at him with a weird smile. 

"What are you grinning about?", Raido asked him, frowning.

"I'm regarding you fondly. You're doing good as a Captain." Raido couldn't tell if Genmas compliment was genuine, sarcastic, or a bit of both. Probably both.

"Ugh, shut up. You can't keep hogging all the attention on every mission.", Raido replied with a slight tease. It was true, between the both of them, Genma was anointed squad leader more often. Raido didn't really mind, though. Genma was a good Captain. He was naturally calm and collected, and didn't overthink things as Raido tended to do sometimes. He also had a good sense of judging a situation, and always managed to stay neutral. Plus, he was way more sociable than Raido. 

"Well, keep going like that, any maybe you can be Chuunin exam proctor one day, too!" Genma winked at him and dashed past him.

"No fair! I was busy being the Hokage's bodyguard that day!", Raido yelled after him.

"If i remember right, you almost bled to death that day."

Raido's face flushed in embarrassment as he heard Aoba laugh behind him. The whole Konoha crush incident had been pretty horrible, and between the Hokage dying, Ge-nin being abducted, Raido losing to Orochimaru as he tried to protect the Hokage, and him and Genma getting beat up by Orochimarus henchmen again later... There wasn't much place for pettiness. However, that was more than three years ago, and Raido as well as Genma knew Raido didn't really have a chance. With enough distance to the event, they could finally laugh about it. 

Raido smiled. Despite being the subject of Genmas mockery, he was glad his friend was able to lift the mood a little bit. Genma really had a knack for that. Raido usually tried pretty hard to stay serious during missions, as to not get distracted, but a small joke every now and then probably didn't hurt. Raido dashed forward again, passing Genma once more.

"Sorry, Captain coming trough.", he informed him with a straight face, but a light-hearted undertone.

Genma chuckled. "Oh _no_ , i didn't mean to take your place, _Captain_."

 

* * *

 

Raido perked up when he saw a clearing in the distance and silently signaled the others to stop. With a small _thud_ each, they landed on the large tree brach next to him. 

Raido stared ahead at the clearing, which was still a good 100 meters away. It housed a small, very suspicious shed. Everything about it just screamed 'enemy hideout'. Raido could see two guards at the front of the house, but he suspected there might be more inside the house. The fact that they had only two guards told Raido that either this wasn't a very large group to begin with, or that they were severely underestimating Konoha. Either way, good.

"Captain Raido, do you think this is it?", Kotetsu asked, keeping his voice down as much as possible.

"Aoba?", Raido prompted instead of an answer. 

The sunglassed ninja nodded and weaved his hand seals, summoning a bunch of crows near them. He raised his arms and the crows started fluttering off into the direction of the small shed. 

Tense, Raido watched the two guards. They looked up to the crows when they passed them, but seemed to think nothing much of it. A few minutes later, the crows returned. 

"This is the right place.", Aoba informed them after un-summoning the crows. "Yamato is in there. There's a bunch of ninja, maybe two or thee plus the guards in front."

"Is Yamato...?", Genma asked worried, voice trailing off. 

"He's tied up, but i couldn't see much more."

Raido furrowed his brows grimly. "We'll probably have to take him by force." He absentmindedly fiddled with the rings on his fingers before making some quick decisions. "Izumo, Kotetsu, you come with me going in. Please use your syrup field to restrain the enemy. The goal is to get Yamato out of there, if we can avoid a fight then that's ideal. Aoba and Genma will stay here as backup. Please come in if you hear my signal, or if we take too long."

Each of them agreed and checked over their equipment quickly. Kotetsu readied the large weapons he had been carrying. Raido himself took out a small scroll from the front of his vest and summoned his black sword, strapping it to his back.

"We'll go in trough the window, so we don't have to waste time with the guards. Ready?"

"Yep.", Kotetsu confirmed. Izumo just nodded. 

"Okay, let's go." With a soft noise, the three ninja departed.


	4. Raido does a horrible job at his job / Izumo gets kinky / Genma has to carry the team

Raido wasted no time, rushing straight to the small house. He braced his face with his arms before barging straight trough the window, breaking down glass and the wood planks the window had been nailed shut with. He landed straight on one of the enemy ninja, taking him down with him. 

"AUGH! WHAT THE-?!", one of the enemy nin yelled, getting to his feet. Izumo and Kotetsu jumped in after their captain, taking a battle stance left and right in front of him. 

Swiftly jumping up and readying himself, Raido took in his surroundings. The shack was dirty and run-down. There were about 7 ninja who were currently getting up from where they had been lounging around, drawing their kunai and other weapons. _Shit. Thats more than Aoba saw earlier._ They were wearing Kirigakure headbands. Raido scanned the room in a shock of adrenaline. Finally, he saw Yamato. He was tied to a chair, slumped over, apparently unconscious. A kunai was wedged deep into his shoulder, and he had several cuts and bruises. He looked pretty beat up. 

"Shit! It's Konoha!", one of the ninja yelled and  jumped backwards, prompting the others to follow him. 

"Izumo!", Raido yelled, while taking out his sword in one fluent motion and starting to make his way over to Yamato. 

"Yes!" Izumo jumped into action, quickly weaving hand signs. "Water style: Starch Syrup Capturing Field!" He took a deep breath and started spewing sticky liquid in front of them, towards where the majority of the enemies had gathered. 

Raido focused on the task before him, which in this case were the two enemy ninja that popped up and tried to block his path towards Yamato. He narrowed his eyes and swung his sword forward, trying to cut them while passing by them. However, with a high metallic CLANG, one of them managed to block his sword with a kunai. Raido swiftly jumped back, re-assessed his situation and dashed forward again to cross blades with the enemy. 

The Kiri ninja were not bad. The two of them kept Raidos hands full and managed to drive him back a few steps. Adrenaline rushed in his ears as one of them managed to cut his cheek, him barely avoiding the majority of the attack. Shortly after that, Raido saw an opening and wasted no time, stabbing one of them trough the chest with his black, poison-coated sword. He glanced over.

Izumo and Kotetsu were in the middle of their combo attack, although they were getting swamped with enemies. Two Ninja were caught in their syrup field and the Konoha ninja started acting quickly. Kotetsu threw one of the large blades strapped to his back towards his partner, which Izumo caught with great routine. They were connected trough a long, spiked chain. Izumo was fending himself off against one of the ninja, while Kotetsu traveled over the field to incapacitate the other. However, three more of the Kiri ninja were approaching them rapidly, with bared Kunai.

 _Shit, thats too many._ Raido swung the blade against his enemy with extra force, only to jump back after the recoil and use the extra second to let out a loud, shrill whistle, to signal Aoba and Genma to step in. Hopefully they could corner some of the enemies by coming in trough the front door. 

"Oh? Bold of you to look away from me!", the Kiri nin teased him, weaving hand seals at high speed. 

"Tch!" Raido had a tough time avoiding the jet-like water stream coming at him, chopping off a few of his hairs and blasting a hole in the wooden walls of the house. He threw shuriken at the enemy to get a few more meters away, but he deflected them and instantly came after him. Raido noticed Aoba and Genma bursting in trough the front door. As usual, Aoba unleashed his crow storm. They fluttered towards the enemies and hindered their sight, giving Raido precious milli-seconds to re-adjust his sword and dash forwards again. 

Fighting filled the air. The smell of blood and syrup. The intense pressure of chakra crackling trough the room as ninjutsu were used on both sides. The shrill clanging of metal against metal, the thudding as Kunai hit their targets, the poofing noises as crows disappeared. 

Raido fought hard as he tried to get closer to Yamato, not making much progress against his opponent. Aoba was throwing out ninjutsu after ninjutsu, while Genma covered him from the enemies. They kept three ninja from joining Izumo and Kotetsu's fight, as the duo had their hands full already. Raido noted another Kiri nin coming in trough the front door. He was limping, but looked all the angrier. A Senbon was stuck in his leg, presumably courtesy of Genma from earlier as he had joined the fight. The ninja took in the view, then dashed towards Raido to help his colleague. 

The Konoha nin narrowed his eyes. He had to finish this quickly, or they were all in trouble. They guy with the hurt leg was probably a decent weak point to gain an advantage. Raido took a jump backwards and threw four Shuriken at the injured enemy, making him dodge and stumble backwards as his leg caved in for a second. With deadly precision, Raido then threw his sword. It grazed the other ninja he was fighting against, and landed in the wavering guy's chest like in an oversized target. The black blade went straight trough his body, only to be stopped by the hilt. Combined with the poison, there was no way this guy would be able to fight again any time soon. 

Raido immediately dashed forward, aiming to retrieve his sword as soon as possible. He didn't really like trowing it, but it seemed the most practical solve to this situation. And, obviously, it worked. The impaled man started falling backwards, only to be caught by his comrade. 

"Yashamaru! No!!" The Kiri-nin desperately grasped the body of his fallen friend. He hid his face as he yelled infuriated. "What have you dooooone?!"

Raido ignored him, instead opting to pull out a kunai and swung it at him. He expected him to drop his friend and evade, but instead the Kiri-nin hurled the poor sod right at Raido. Raido was entirely caught off guard at this. The Kiri-nin crashed right into him, Raido's sword still stuck in his chest. They toppled over, with the other enemy coming directly after them, still pushing. As Raido hit the ground, he felt a hot, sharp pain spread from his midsection.

It intensified as the enemy ninja landed on top of him, grabbing the black sword and driving it down further, trough the chest of his 'friend', into Raido's abdomen. He had a grin on his face that could only be described as evil. 

"Kh-!" Stuck under the body and impaled by his own sword, Raido didn't have much freedom of movement. Any writhing of his only made it worse, and there was still the fact that his sword was poisoned. He could already feel this very poison starting to spread. Or at least he imagined it. It could also have been the blood slowly soaking trough his clothes. Or his pain-filled imagination, who knew.  _No. I gotta focus._ He pulled himself together and took a second to focus his chakra, then opened his eyes again. 

He quickly formed a hand seal and released the summoning on his sword, making it disappear. Surprised, the enemy slumped over and fell on top of the pile, as he had leaned his entire weight into the sword. Raido flinched, both at the feeling of the sword disappearing from trough his body, and the new weight falling onto the wound. He tried not to let it deter him. Instead, he pulled out one more Kunai and swiftly stabbed his enemy, multiple times. Blood splattered all across his face and chest. Well, at least that would hide the fact that he was injured.

Raido didn't want to worry his teammates. They were on a mission, after all, and couldn't afford to be distracted. (There also was his underlying thought of _oh god Genma will never let me hear the end of it if he finds out i managed to get stabbed with my own sword._ His face started heating up in embarrassment.) He squirmed out of the heap of dead and/or unconscious enemies and propped himself up, glancing around. The others were still busy with their respective fight, and no one seemed to have noticed the situation he had just been in. Raido kneeled down, breathing hard. The poison was already getting to him. He turned away from the others, fumbling with the small pouches on the front of his vest. Like any sensible person, he was always carrying the antidote to the poison of his own sword, although he had hoped that he never had to use it on himself.

 

Izumo

"Gnh-!" Izumo choked as he was slammed to the sticky floor, a hand wrapped tightly around his neck. His vest was caught in the stickiness that was the syrup field he had created himself earlier. A Kunai had hit him and was now deeply wedged into his thigh, which had made him loose his footing and be caught by the enemy like this. 

"Heh! Not so clever now, you little rat!", the Kiri-nin in question said with a nasty grin as he tightened his grip and pushed down harder. Izumo desperately tried to get some air into his lungs. He squirmed around, trying to get out of the situation, but the grip around his neck was like a steel vice and only closed down more. Uselessly, his hands sifted trough the syrup beneath him and got stuck further. His vision was slowly going black. His limbs started to become numb and heavy from the lack of oxygen as his movements slowed down more and more. He vaguely saw the enemy raising his other hand, Kunai aimed towards his heart, then rushing straight at him-

"NO!" 

Blood splattered to the floor. The hand around Izumos neck twitched, giving in just a tiny bit. Izumo looked up, trying to focus his eyes. Kotetsu had jumped in front of him, blocking the enemy Kunai with his bare hand. It had pierced trough his palm and blood was dropping down.

"How DARE you hurt him!", Kotetsu yelled, enraged. The enemy ninja's eyes widened. He let go of Izumo, who was desperately gasping for air, and tried to get away. However, Kotetsu didn't let go of his Kunai. With his free hand, Kotetsu pulled out a scroll from one of his belt pouches and let it roll open, making sure some of the blood from his hand landed on it. Making a seal with his other hand, he summoned the giant shell mace he liked to use in battle. 

He caught it with his free hand and, in the same motion, used its entire weight to crush it onto the enemy ninja's head. Then, he pulled the Kunai out of his hand with his teeth, gripped the mace with both hands, and took a full force swing at his opponent, which knocked him straight out of the syrup field against a wall. Breathing heavily, he turned around towards his partner. 

"Izumo! Are you okay?!" He gently took him by the shoulders, worry on his face. 

"I...-" Izumo was unable to get a word out as he started coughing involuntarily. He was still hazy from the lack of oxygen and felt like he was about to pass out any second. Numbly, he felt that he was being picked up. His vision blurred even more at the sudden motion. 

"Hang in there, Izumo!"

 

Genma

"Fire style: Flame bullet!" Genma felt the heat from the ninjutsu as Aoba spat out fireballs, encasing the enemies in front of them. He jumped next to him, deflecting the Kunai that were thrown at the sunglassed ninja. Worried, he looked over. _Aoba has been using ninjutsu and genjutsu nonstop now... i hope he doesn't run out of chakra any time soon._ The fire simmered down, and Aoba deflated a bit, being heavily out of breath. _Damn..._ Genma stepped in front of Aoba, just as one of the Kiri-nin dashed towards them. 

He held his ground and they exchanged Kunai blows, the metal noises almost blocking out the sound of one of the other enemies throwing shuriken at them. Genma harshly stepped backwards to evade them, pushing back Aoba as well. Aoba stumbled. 

"Oi!", Genma warned him.

"Don't worry... just give me a sec, i'm fine." Aoba answered. He sounded exhausted. 

 _Shit. we can't keep this up much longer._ Genma himself was still holding up okay. He took a few Kunai to the back as he had been protecting Aoba, and had a nasty cut on his forehead, but nothing too serious. Nothing that could keep him from fighting. 

"Everyone! Retreat!" Genma suddenly heard the command from his left, and looked over. Raido had managed to defeat his enemies somehow, and was carrying Yamato. Yamato was still unconscious, still tied up, and still had a Kunai stuck in his shoulder. The hair at the back of his head was encrusted with dried blood. Raido himself was covered in blood. He started making his way to the door, looking incredibly determined and, somehow, even more stern than usual. 

"Understood! Aoba!" Genma answered, while blocking blows from both of the Kiri-nin they were still fighting against. 

"Ugh! Don't let them get away!", one of them shouted. The other one nodded and was looking for a way past Genma. 

"Genjutsu: Temple of Nirvana Technique!" Shocked, Genma looked back and saw Aoba holding his hands in front of him in a hand seal. 

"Aoba! But you..." Before Genma could finish his sentence, Aoba started slipping and dropped to the floor, passed out. Genma grit his teeth and looked at the enemies. White feathers were falling on front of them, and after a few seconds each of them slowed down and eventually fell asleep. 

 _Well, that should be enough to let us get away.,_ Genma thought. He first pulled out the three Kunai stuck in his back, flinching at the pain. Then, he picked up Aoba, hoisting him up and carrying him on his back. 

"Kotetsu! Izumo! Can you walk?!", he yelled over. Kotetsu had pulled Izumo out of the syrup field and was now propping him up with one of Izumos arms around his shoulder to help him walk. Izumo looked pretty out of it, leaning on his partner weakly. However, Kotetsu nodded in confirmation and the four of them quickly made their way out of the shed to catch up to the others. 

Raido was dragging Yamato away from the house, leaving a trail of blood. He had blood stains all over his chest and face, and looked grimly. 

"Raido! You look terrible! That's not your's, right?" Genma asked him, joking half-heartedly. Raido took a breath and adjusted his grip on Yamato, who was slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. 

"Sure.", he answered, giving Genma a reassuring smile. 

"Man, now i wanna see the other guy."

"Consider this: don't, and let's just get out of here instead." Raido suggested to him, jerking his head towards the forest.

"Yeah, that's fair." Genma answered and took off with Aoba on his back. Izumo and Kotetsu followed, trying to keep up despite Izumo's hurt leg and his half-conscious state due to being choked before. Raido took a last look towards the now mostly destroyed shack and followed them, disappearing between the trees. 


	5. Raido drops his teammate / Genma also drops his teammate

Raido

Raido had a hard time keeping up with the others. They were traveling trough the trees, and each time he stepped down to jump off another branch, gravity pulled at him and intensified the pain of his stab wound. He had managed to take the antidote against the poison of his sword, but that didn't do much for all the blood loss he was experiencing. Oh, and also the pain. That was also a thing. Additionally, the unconscious Yamato on his back seemed to get heavier with each jump he did. Sweat was dripping down his face. 

Trying to focus on something else than himself, Raido stared at the back of his teammates as they were rushing trough the forest. They had been running for almost an hour now, and Raido was grateful for the slightly lower speed since everyone was carrying one of the others. Genma had Aoba in some sort of piggy-back ride. Aoba didn't seem critically injured, but Genma had said that he had use up too much chakra. He would probably be fine after a while, and maybe a good sleep. Kotetsu was still holding up Izumo. Izumo was doing better now, but was still a little insecure on his feet. 

Raido landed on the next tree, taking an additional second before jumping off again. His knees were wobbly, almost giving in each jump. He pressed one of his hands against his midriff, over the wound. Blood was still seeping trough his clothes, now having formed a large stain on his jonin vest. He sucked in air trough his breath, trying not to concentrate on the pain. He looked back towards his friends. Genma's back seemed weirdly blurry. Squinting, Raido tried to figure out what was going on. 

He felt lightheaded, every movement spinning in his head. The urge to stop and lie down for a bit came over him, but he tried to ignore it. He was breathing heavily by now. Also he was feeling really cold, and really sweaty. His muscles were straining with each jump, the cut in his midsection burning trough his thoughts. He heard his own heartbeat rushing in his ears. His vision was getting darker. _I can't pass out now! We have to get Yamato back to Konoha!_ He shook his head, which made him almost miss the next step as everything started spinning. _No, no!_ He pushed off the next tree, soaring trough the air again. He focused on the next tree branch. _One by one. This is fine._  

It was not, in fact, fine, as he didn't quite manage to coordinate his legs to his brain. His foot actually missed the tree branch and he hit his shins on it instead, making him lose control and sending him crashing towards the ground. Yamato was thrown off his shoulder, and Raido slammed into the dirt below, being knocked out cold. 

 

* * *

 

Genma

Genma flinched as he heard a crashing sound behind him. He stopped abruptly at the next tree he jumped onto, bending his knees as they took the full weight of him and Aoba in motion. He looked back. He noticed he couldn't see Raido anywhere. He cursed. He turned around harshly, jumping back while looking at the ground below. Finally, he saw two figures laying on the ground. 

"Kotetsu!", Genma alerted the Chuu-nin, while jumping down from the trees. He dropped Aoba, rushing over to Raido. He was laying face-down in the dirt, motionless. A small puddle of blood had started to form below him and was constantly spreading.

"For **fucks** sake, Raido, why do you always have to play tough?", he muttered as he carefully turned Raido on his back and put his ear to his chest, listening closely. Raido's breathing was shallow and fast, his heartbeat weaker than it should be. Gena realized that most of the blood covering his vest was still warm and wet. Not, in fact, dried blood from the enemy ninja.

"I should've gotten suspicious when he cracked a joke and smiled for once.", Genma berated himself, unzipping Raidos vest to look at what he was dealing with. _Shit_. That was pretty bad. He rolled up Raido's shirt and mesh armor shirt to discover a nasty stab wound. It wasn't very large and had clean edges, likely from a sword or something, but the wound was pretty deep and still bleeding. 

"Oh god. Oh, _shit_.", Kotetsu said exactly what was on Genmas mind. He had set down Izumo next to Aoba and was looking over Genmas shoulder. 

Genma 'tsk'ed and reached into his back pouch to pull out first aid materials. "Kotetsu, please look after Yamato and Izumo, and your own wounds. Guess we'll have to take a break." Routinely, Genma started wrapping Raidos injury, carefully applying pressure on it. Raido didn't seem conscious, but he twitched and furrowed his brows in pain. 

"Oi, Raido. Raido!" After being done with the bandaging, Genma patted his friend on the cheek, trying to get him to respond. Raido didn't react to it. The wound was all bandaged up and seemed fine for now. Well, not 'fine', probably, but Genma didn't know how else he could help Raido right now. He did first aid, and now the goal should probably be to get back to Konoha as fast as possible. He was worried. Raido had lost a lot of blood, and Genma was not quite sure what the limit on these things were. He looked at him again. Raido showed no signs of waking up any time soon, his eyes shut tightly. Genma sighed and looked at how the others were doing. 

Aoba was, unsurprisingly, still passed out a few meters away, where Genma had dropped him. It would probably take him two or three more hours of sleep to restore enough of his chakra. It was inconvenient, but nothing to worry about greatly. Except the fact that they had to drag one more unconscious body trough enemy territory, but Aoba would probably be fine. (Although Genma couldn't imagine he would be very stoked about the fact that he just dropped him like a backpack after coming home from school.) Izumo was leaning against a tree, trying his best to wrap the stab wound on his thigh. He was awake, but his movements were still slow and insecure. As he finally managed to bandage his leg, he leaned back and grimaced as he touched his throat.

"Genma! What about this?" Genma turned his attention to the right, where Kotetsu was taking care of Yamato. He was holding out a Kunai towards Genma. "It's a weird Kunai that was stuck in his shoulder."

Genma hesitantly took the Kunai, looking at it from all angles. The blade was a bit narrower than a usual Kunai, and the handle was replaced by a slim glass phiole. Off-color purple liquid sludged around in it. It was about half empty. Genma's expression darkened. 

"Probably poison.", he said as he handed the Kunai back to Kotetsu. "They probably used this to keep him from using chakra. Seal it in a scroll, so the medical staff can analyze it later. I'll look after his wounds."

Kotetsu nodded and took out a scroll from his vest. Genma turned his attention to Yamato. He took off his forehead protector to bandage the laceration on the back of his head, then went on to the cut in his shoulder. It wasn't too large or deep, but the edges had a nasty discoloration. Genma decided to rinse it with water from his travel flask, then carried on to bandage it. He worked quickly. Besides the large cut on Yamato's shoulder, he wrapped the more noticeable of the several smaller wounds on his arms, legs and torso, so they at least would stop bleeding. Yamato still looked horrible as he had  quite a number of bruises and smaller scratches, but that would have to do for now. 

"Alright.", Genma said, propping himself up on his knees. "We should look for a sheltered, hidden place to rest for a bit. I would love to leave as soon as possible, however, i don't think our group is in the best condition to travel. We have roughly 2.5 people who can walk properly."

"Sorry 'bout that..." Izumo muttered, his voice hoarse. 

"I'll have a look. Take care of your own wounds, Genma.", Kotetsu offered, tying the bandage around his palm shut with his teeth. He rushed off.

 _Ah, right. I forgot about that._ Genma took off his vest to tend to his own injuries. He stripped off his shirt, and his mesh armor underneath, to reach his back. He had several small injuries from Kunai and Shuriken here. They did sting badly when moving, but it was nothing out of the ordinary for a ninja. Genma put his long hair up under his bandana to keep it out of the way, then poured some water over his back generously to clean the wounds. He had to stretch his shoulders quite a bit backwards to cover the cuts with some gauze, and then finally managed to tie some bandages around them to keep them in place. He tied it off at his front and rolled his shoulders to loosen his muscles a little bit. Lost in thoughts, he put his armor and shirt back on. 

Genma looked over to Izumo, who absent-mindedly rubbed his neck. "Does it still hurt?", he asked the younger nin. 

Izumo gently shook his head, shrugging. Genma took it as a 'will probably be fine in a while' and moved on to check on Raido again. 

He worried about his friend, greatly. He put a hand on his forehead. Raido didn't have any fever, but his face was clammy and cold. There was no indication that he had felt Genmas hand, or his presence at all. Genma sighed. He hated this. _Raido really has a tendency to get himself in trouble, doesn't he?_ It wasn't the first time he's had this thought. Genma decided to sit down for a second next to Raido. Waiting for Kotetsu to return, he might as well take a short break. He nibbled on an energy bar, trying to restore some of his strength. The fight had left him worn out, but he couldn't afford losing focus, especially with his team hurt like this. Especially with his friends hurt like this. 

A few minutes passed before Genma felt Kotetsu's chakra signature approaching again. 

"Found something.", Kotetsu informed him as he dropped down from the trees in front of him. 

Genma stood back up. "Alright. I'll carry Raido first, you take Yamato. Izumo, i'll be back here for you and Aoba in a minute."

Izumo nodded in confirmation. Genma delicately picked up Raido, making sure not to shake him too much. He carried him in his arms, careful to support his torso. He looked at Kotetsu, who carried Yamato in a similar way, and the younger ninja took off, leading the way. 


	6. Genma is having the time of his life

 "...and thats how we ended up with guard duty for two months as a consequence.", Kotetsu finished his story and, satisfied, leaned back on the tree behind him.

Izumo nodded. "Yeah, she was pretty pissed off.", he added in a low chuckle. His voice still sounded a bit hoarse, but he didn't seem to be in pain anymore.

Genma snickered amusedly. It had been a few hours since they stopped, and they had found a fairly sheltered, hidden place. The injured - Yamato, Raido and Aoba - were sleeping under a concave rock formation, while Genma, Kotetsu and Izumo had settled down a few meters away, trying not to disturb their rest. They had a dim lantern between them, as it was already deep in the night. Currently, they were trying to pass the time by telling old stories. However, all of them stayed wary of their surroundings. They had no idea if the enemy would be following them or not. 

Genma really didn't like taking such long breaks, but he didn't really have a choice. Izumo couldn't carry anyone for a longer distance due to his injured leg, so at least one of the unconscious ninja would have to wake up before they could start traveling again. 

"By the way, how do you three know each other? Were you in a team together?", Kotetsu asked curiously.

Genma pondered it for a second. "Not really. We went to the same class in Academy, though. We just kind of... gathered together after everyone else sorted out their place in the village." He chewed on his Senbon. "It's kinda hard to get recognized for something if you have a genius like Kakashi in your class. But then, it's fortunately also hard sicking out as weird if you have someone like Guy in your team."

"Ohh, you were in a team with Guy?!"

"Yeah, it was Guy, me and Ebisu. It sure was wild being in a team with him..."

"Heh, i can imagine." Kotetsu was well aware of Guy being one of the most bizarre personalities in the village.

"Yeah. Eventually, Guy was promoted to Jonin, and Ebisu decided to go into teaching more, so our team disbanded. Raido had the same problem. He was in a team with Kurenai and Asuma, who both became Jonin in their early twenties. I ended up on quite a few missions with Raido since we were kind of left over. Then, eventually, the Fourth recognized our talent for assassination missions, and made us Tokubetsu Jonin to serve in the newly founded Hokage guard platoon with some of the other Jonin."

"Is that where you met Aoba?"

"Hmm, no, Aoba wasn't in the guard platoon. He had also been in our class, but was more specialized in reconnaissance, so he got into the Intelligence division. The Fourth often worked closely with them, so that's how we got to know Aoba. After the Fourth died, we were on a mission team with him quite a few times and grew closer." Genmas voice softened.

Kotetsu looked massively impressed. "Did you ever-..."

He was interrupted himself as all three of them noticed motion. Genma looked up, to see Yamato coming up besides them, limping and moving ever so carefully, but awake. 

"Yamato! You're awake.", Genma greeted him. Yamato looked pretty bad. He had dark bags under his eyes - even more than usual - and was looking so lost, wrapped up in all those bandages. He was carrying his forehead protector, and plopped down next to Genma, noteably stiff. 

"Damn it.", Kotetsu muttered.

Izumo grinned at him. "Looks like someone owes me a drink."

Yamato turned his head to look at Genma. . "What's going on?", he asked, his voice cracking slightly. 

"Well... long story short, we got you out of that shed." Genma shrugged. The bandages around his torso strained and pulled on the small wounds on his back. "More importantly, how are YOU doing?", he asked gently, checking over Yamato's injuries once more. The bandaids were still in place, but a bit of blood was seeping trough the wrappings on his shoulder. 

Yamato stared at his hands for a second. "...I'll be fine." His voice was quiet and unsure. He was most likely still pretty confused by everything. Genma knew the disorientation of losing consciousness and waking up somewhere else with no clue what happened to him. And Yamato had been going trough that a lot during the last few months. 

Yamato straightened his back and carefully rolled his shoulder, trying out how much he could move it. "They used some sort of poison on me." His voice sounded more secure as he could talk about something he was sure about.  "It will probably take a while before it dissolves and i'm able to use chakra again. I can't focus it at all..."

Genma gave him a short nod. "We'll rest for a bit more. I'm not sure if the enemy is following us or not, so i would prefer if we could leave quickly. However, I want at least Aoba to wake up again, we can't really travel like this."

"I'm sorry..."

"No no, don't be." Genma patted his shoulder. Well, the one that wasn't hurt. "We should have been more careful. Also, you couldn't have known they would attack you on a school class trip, right?"

Yamato thought for a second, remembering his original mission with Iruka's class. He just tilted his head in lack of a response. "What happened to Raido-san, then? He's..." He trailed off, looking over to the unconscious man.

Genma's expression turned grim. "He's a goddamn idiot, that's what he is. He somehow got hurt in the battle against the Kiri nin, but was too stubborn to tell us about it. Until he collapsed and passed out. I performed first aid as well as i could, but he lost a shitton of blood." He left the rest unsaid, but was certain Yamato could pick up the worry in his voice. He was still mad at Raido for not telling him anything about his injury.

All of them were silent for a while.

Genma propped his head up in his hand, giving Yamato a little smile. "Also, it looks like he got stabbed by his own sword. One of the antidote vials was missing from the vest, and the wound looks like one from his sword.", he said with a more mischievous undertone. 

Yamato caught it. "Bet he'll never hear the end of that from you, eh?"

"Of course not." _If he makes it_ , was what both of them were leaving out of the conversation.

"Ah right, what about Aoba-san?"

"He used up all his chakra.", Kotetsu answered in Genmas place. "Genma had to carry him all the way like a sleeping baby. But, he should wake up any time now. Surely." He glanced at Izumo, who just shrugged with a grin.

"Actually, i'm sure you'll both find Raido to be the next one to wake up.", Genma threw in, crossing his hands behind his head and leaning back. 

Yamato gave him a small, tired smile. 

"They took bets on who would wake up first. I tried to stop them, but...", Genma complained in an overly dramatic way, ending in a faked exasperated sigh. "Anyways, i thought Raido would wake up first, considering how serious he takes everything. No offense."

Yamato waved it off. He seemed to be a bit more at ease, now that he knew he was between allies again. Idly, he tried to tie on his forehead protector again, but couldn't quite manage to pull it over the thick layer of bandages around his head. He just... kind of gave up after a while and held it in his lap. 

"Yamato-senpai, do you know why the Kiri-nin captured you?", Izumo asked him.

Yamato stared at him like he had suddenly grown an extra set of arms for a second. His face was usually pretty unreadable, but now he really looked confused. 

"Uh... Yamato-senpai?"

"Ah, sorry. I've never been called a senpai before."

Kotetsu looked amused. "Really?! Thats a little hard to believe." 

"It is?" Yamato seemed flustered and awkwardly carded his fingers trough his hair. 

"Izumo, Kotetsu, aren't you actually older than Yamato?", Genma commented. 

Kotetsu actually jumped to his feet in shock. "WHAT?!"

"Wait, are we? How old are you?" Izumo couldn't believe it either.

"...27..."

"What, so you're two years younger than we are??"

Genma chuckled at their disbelief. 

The small group continued to chat and passed another hour or so. Genma noticed how tired Yamato looked, so he urged him to sleep a bit more, too. Yamato declined, but dozed off a few minutes later anyways. Genma, Izumo and Kotetsu all agreed to let him rest, and to stay awake themselves in case of an enemy attack. Genma wondered why no one had come after them yet. Were the Kiri-nin still asleep from Aobas Genjutsu? Were they still caught in the syrup field? Or did they simply go back to wherever they came from, to get backup? He doubted they would have given up completely, considering the Konoha nin were in a pretty bad shape, and they had Yamato, the target of the enemy ninja. _They'll probably come sooner or later..._

"Genma-san, tell us another story!", Kotetsu begged him, taking Genma out of his thoughts. He had a almost childish curiosity in his eyes.

"Another one? What about? I already told you most of my craziest mission stories."

"Then, what was the wildest thing that ever happened to you outside of a mission?"

A wicked grin immediately split Genmas face. "I definitely can't tell you that.", he answered, very decisive. His face heated up as vague memories came up and he relished in them. Good times. 

"...You do realize that now you REALLY gotta tell us, right?", Izumo said with a sly grin. 

"Is it that embarassing?" Kotetsu would have been on the edge of his seat, if they wouldn't be sitting on the dirty forest floor at 3 am.

"Well, not for me. Mostly." Genma leaned sideways, crossing his arms and closing his eyes sagely. "It was on New Years eve, actually. I was just having a chill evening with Raido and Aoba... But after midnight, Guy suddenly appeared and dragged us all out to drink. I mean, drink more than we already had. And with Guy appeared Kakashi - in retrospect, Guy probably forced him to tag along as some part of a twisted competition - and... well, i dont remember all of the things that happened that night."

Kotetsu and Izumo's faces were in a perfect :O shape. They couldn't even begin fathom the pure extent of chaos that must have come from Guy being drunk. And Kakashi.

"...I think we broke into the Jonin Lounge sometime during the night to keep on going, after the bar had thrown us out.", Genma continued as well as he could remember that fateful night.  "...Guy was definitely naked at some point. Actually, I think Kakashi may have been too? My memory is kinda blurry at that point. However! Despite not looking like it, the one who parties the hardest is definitely Raido."

"Oi, don't tell them that!", came a weak, strained voice from over where Raido was supposedly unsconcious. He sounded flustered.

"Raido!" Genma exclaimed a bit too loudly. He startled Yamato, who had been leaning against a tree half asleep and fell over in shock. Genma stumbled to his feet and rushed over to Raido's side. 

He leaned over him. Raido blinked at him weakly. His brows were furrowed even further than before, and he had his hand lying over the cut on his midsection. He was very pale. All in all, he was not looking too hot right now. 

"How are you doing?", Genma asked him anyways. 

"...Can i choose to not answer that question?" Raido turned his head to the other side, not looking Genma in the eyes. Genma would have found that highly worrying, but he knew Raido well and could clearly read his expressions. He was embarrassed. _Well, he should be. Seriously. Who gets stabbed by his own sword?_

Genma shook his head and scoffed. "Unbelievable. Here I am, caring for you, worrying about you, bandaging your wounds..."

"Where are we?", Raido interrupted Genma's dramatic spiel. God, his voice sounded so weak. He tried to move his head to look around, but flinched back in pain.

Genma turned serious, despite his exasperation with his teammate. "You suddenly passed out and fell down, so we had to stop. We found a sheltered place nearby, so i wanted to rest for a bit until you, and Aoba, and Yamato woke up again. Speaking of which...", he turned his head to Kotetsu and winked at him. "Looks like someone owes **me** a drink as well."

He turned back just in time to see Raido trying to get up. He was obviously in pain as he moved, clutching his midriff. He got even paler.

"Hey. Hey! What do you think you're doing, you idiot?" Genma got over and pushed him back gently. 

"But we... wen can't stay here, we have to get back to Konoha! We have to get Yamato to the hospital..." Raido paused, shocked. "Yamato! What happened to him! Did, did i drop him??"

Genma gave him a sympathetic smile. He was now actively holding Raido down by his shoulders to prevent him from getting up.

"Yamato will be fine." He gesticulated over to Yamato with one arm, who awkwardly waved at them. "How about you worry about yourself first? You're bleeding to death, for gods sake!"

"What?", Raido said with a small disbelieving chuckle, fighting for his rights to sit up. He struggled to grab Genma and push him away, but the only visible result was a bloody handprint on Genmas vest. "Pff, bleeding to death? I'm not 'bleeding to death'. I'm... perfectly fi-....ugh-.... wait... give me a minute..." He paled even more, slowing down his movements. He grabbed his forehead and closed his eyes, trying to get over the wave of nausea rushing over him. He was breathing heavily as he laid back down. 

"Are you actually about to pass out??" Genma let go of him. Raido made no further attempts to move. "God, you really are the worst."

"No no, i'm good. We can get going any minute.", Raido mumbled, almost incomprehensively. 

Genma sighed. "Well first, drink something." He pulled out his water flask and gave it to Raido, who gratefully took it. "Then, sleep. I can carry you, but you should at least be able to sit up without passing out immediately before we can go on. Aoba is still asleep as well. I'll wake you both up in an hour, okay?" 

Genma could clearly see Raido was about to protest. He squatted down close to him and put a finger over his mouth. Genma put on the sweetest smile he could muster. "Look, i won't accept any criticism from someone who manages to get stabbed by his own, poison-coated sword. Right?" 

That did its job to shut Raido up. And to get some color back into his face out of sheer embarrassment. 


	7. Raido is absolutely fine, nothing to worry about

"Aoba! Wake up, Aoba!" Raido woke up just in time to open his tired eyes and see Genma prodding Aoba in the side with his foot. Prodding soon turned into light kicks. 

"Hrnng? What?", Aoba mumbled, sleepy. He sat up, hair sticking up in all directions and forehead protector being even more askew than usual. He scratched his head, staring blankly for a few seconds. Then, he panicked. "Ahh! Genma, what happened! Where... Did we get them? What about Yamato?? How long have i been passed out??"

Genma pinched his nose, probably due to the massive amount of questions and explaining to do. "How do i put this short... We got Yamato, it's been a few hours, the enemy is most likely still out there somewhere, we really gotta go. You good?" Genma walked over to Raido while he was talking, seeing he had already waken up and giving him a relieved nod. 

Aoba took a second to take in all in, then got up. He still seemed tired and a bit out of it, but was fairly stable on his feet. "I'm good." He raised his hand and concentrated for a second, channeling chakra. "My chakra hasn't fully recovered yet, but i'll be fine." He looked around. First thing he saw were Izumo and Kotetsu, who were arguing among themselves about something. Yamato was still sitting in his place under a tree, exhausted. 

"Yamato! Are you okay?" Aoba asked, taking a few steps towards him. He saw Genma kneeling down next to Raido out of the corner of his eyes and stopped. "RAIDO??! What the hell happened to you, man?"

Raido had just managed to sit up and shrug in response. His stab wound still hurt like hell, and he was feeling very light-headed, but he would be fine. Probably. "Eh, you know...", he said to Aoba in lack of an better answer. 

"No i dont!! Are you okay?!", Aoba asked him, voice cracking in panic. 

"Calm down, calm down!", Raido waved at him reassuringly. At the same time, he slapped away Genmas hand, who had put it on Raidos back gently, like you would to when helping an elderly person out of a chair. "Im okay, see?" Raido stood up, propping himself up heavily on his knees in the process. Pain shot trough his body, and he had to make an involuntary step forward to keep his balance, but he was perfectly capable of standing on his own. "Seriously, stop worrying about me."

"What's this then?" Genma handed him his jonin vest, but not without overdramatically pointing out all the blood on it. Raido ignored it and just put on the vest, leaving it open as to not put more stress on the wound. 

"Great! Let's go, then." Raido carefully walked over to Yamato. Genma started packing up all of their stuff that was scattered around, while Aoba was still on the verge of freaking out about the whole situation. 

Yamato currently had his hands clasped together in the seal he traditionally used for all of his wood-style techniques. His eyes were closed and he looked concentrated. Raido waited for a moment, not wanting to disturb him. Yamato still didn't look good. He had dark rings under his eyes and was breathing heavily. After a few seconds, some small branches started growing on the tree behind him, full with leaves and everything. One of them smacked him over the head as it plopped up and broke his concentration. Yamato sighed exasperated and let his shoulders slump down. 

"I still can't really control my chakra. The poison they used is still taking a toll on me...", Yamato explained. Then he looked up to see Raido, and realized that Raido would have no goddamn idea what he was talking about since he had been unconcious for the past few hours. Both men stared at each other, kinda unsure what to make of the situation. Both of them wanted to ask the other if he was gonna be fine, but both of them knew the answer would probably a 'yeah i'm good' and both of them knew this wouldn't be true. 

They were interrupted in their stare-off by Izumo and Kotetsu's conversation.

"Ow, ow! Stop it, i can do this myself!", Kotetsu complained as Izumo tried to re-wrap the bandage around his palm.

"But you got hurt trying to protect me! This is the least i can do!"

"We're ninja, Izumo, for gods sake! We get hurt, that happens!"

"But it was my fault for letting myself get caught. I should watch out more."

"Yeah, you're right about that." Kotetsu pulled his hand away from Izumo's gentle touch and finished tying off the bandage himself. "Look dude, it's fine. How is your leg?"

"Don't change the topic!"

"Guys, not to interrupt you or anything...", Genma interrupted them. "But can you do this some other time? Also, get a room, you two."

Izumo and Kotetsu sputtered something, trying to explain themselves, but Genma waved it off. 

"Are you all good to go?", he asked the group instead. He was met with general nodding and mumbling. 

Raido offered Yamato his hand to help him up, but was gently pushed aside by Genma, who pulled up Yamato himself. Yamato was still insecure on his feet, so Genma held him up with one arm around his shoulder. Kotetsu did the same for Izumo, who was able to walk but probably couldn't keep up a high speed for a prolonged time. 

"Alright, time to get out of here. Izumo, Kotetsu, you take the front. If we get into an ambush, you have the best chances of using a combo attack. Then me and Yamato, since we're probably the slowest. Then Raido, and  then Aoba in the back so you can keep an eye out for possible pursuers. And have your other eye on Raido." Aoba nodded sternly. 

"Hw-... I'm _fine_ , Genma!", Raido protested his treatment in the travel line-up.

"Oh? Well can you promise me not to pass out, then?"

Raido stuck his finger in Genmas direction, then hesitated. "I'm...! Well... not _promise_ , but i'm pretty sure that... probably...." He didn't finish his sentence as Aoba gave him a good pat on the back and shook his head in a manner that said 'give it a rest, buddy'. Raido sighed and caved in.

Finally, the group managed to take off, direction: Konoha. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tfw youre getting rescued by your teammates but:  
> \- one is bleeding to death but too embarassed about it to say anything  
> \- one is passed out bc he used up all his mana points  
> \- one is making fun of both of them  
> \- the other two are one step short from signing their marriage papers


	8. Raido (and the others) manage to drive Genma insane

Raido was tired. Sure, he said he would be fine, but hours of rushing trough the dense forest of the fire country left him exhausted. They had made several breaks, and were traveling quite slowly compared to the usual tempo of a ninja, but Raido really wasn't sure how long he could keep up anymore. It was early afternoon now, and they had been running the entire day. The wound on his torso had started bleeding again at some point throughout the day, but Raido tried his best to ignore it. Aoba, who was following closely behind, had prevented him from stumbling a few times, and often appeared at his side to ask how he was doing. Raido had always managed to reassure him that he would be ok. 

Truth was, he was kind of dizzy and lightheaded. He was staring straight ahead, afraid that tilting his head would make him nauseous. His vision was tunneling in on the path of tree branches in front of him, and he cleared his mind and concentrated on going on. The sharp pain of his injury had faded to a dull, disgusting throbbing. He could feel blood seep out with every jump. They still had at least another day of travel before them. 

Unlike himself, Yamato was slowly getting better. It was probably because the poison in his body was slowly wearing off, but by now he managed to walk on his own and keep up with the group. Genma was still right next to him, and occasionally caught him as he tripped or miscalculated a jump. They had a low conversation, but Raido was too tired to focus on it. He thought he heard them talking about Kakashi on more than one occasion, but wasn't quite sure. 

Raido ducked as a crow suddenly shot over his head, circled around and returned to Aoba behind him. A muttered "Ah, shit." told him that that was probably no good news. Surely enough, Aoba caught up to him the next second. 

He pushed up his sunglasses and muttered: "We're getting some company. Oi, Genma!"

Genma stopped as he was called and jumped down onto the ground, with Yamato coming to an halt on the next tree over. Raido and Aoba landed next to Genma, with Raido kneeling down to catch his breath and be a bit closer to the ground. Kotetsu and Izumo noticed the group stopping, and came back to them. 

"What's going on?", Izumo asked, already being suspicious. 

Aoba stepped forwards, pointing to one of his crows that was sitting on his arm. "There's someone following us. Probably the Kiri-nin. They're gonna catch up to us fairly soon."

"Shit.", Genma cursed. "But i suspected so much. How many are there?"

"Wait a sec." Aoba put one of his hands to his forehead, stretching the other outwards to focus his jutsu. After a while, he 'tsk'-ed. Relaxing his posture, he turned back towards Genma. "It's even worse. They'll have us cornered soon. There are roughly 15 people coming from behind us, and five more in either direction."

"Ughh.", Genma groaned, spitting out his senbon in frustration. "Maybe if we get going immediately, we can slip past them? Ugh, that's probably no good..."

Raido was trying to visualized a plan as well. He touched the rings on his pinkie and ring finger to his lips, a habit he had whenever he was thinking hard. There was only one conclusion. "Just leave me here and split up, you'll have a better chance of-"

"Declined.", Genma instantly disagreed. _Of course._ Raido should have guessed that before. 

Kotetsu raised his hand. "Maybe if we stay back and fight them, we can stall them long enough for you to get away?"

Genma stared at him in disbelief, then made the conscious choice to ignore him. "Any other plans?" Yamato raised his hand. "...That don't involve any form of self-sacrifice?" Yamato dropped his hand again. 

"I think we have about five minutes before they're here.", Aoba mentioned, un-summoning his crows.

"You think we could try and hide from them?" Izumo suggested. 

"I could try and make a shelter below ground with my wood release.", Yamato offered, although his voice sounded tired.

"Can you do that?" Raido looked at him. He had an idea of his own, but if this could work...

Yamato concentrated, forming hand seals quickly and then slamming his hand down onto the ground. A single tree of underwhelming size plopped up in front of him. "No, i suppose not...", Yamato mumbled, disappointed, before slumping together on the ground.

Aoba and Kotetsu were quickly at his side to prop him up. 

"Yamato-senpai??" Kotetsu asked him, worried. Yamato didn't answer. He barely managed to keep his eyes open. 

"Oh my GOD, can we PLEASE go without someone passing out for FIVE goddamn minutes??" Genma finally lost his cool, a rare sight to behold. 

"Shh, you'll give away our position!", Izumo warned him, distressed.

"They already KNOW where we are!", Aoba threw in, voice high-pitched. 

"Guys, shut up for a minute. I have an idea.", Raido finally proclaimed. Even though he was unable to speak up very loudly, everyones attention immediately snapped to him. He pointed his finger upwards, his expression serious, but also a bit nervous. "The Flying Thunder Formation Jutsu."

"The Flying Thu-... are you inSANE?" Aoba couldn't believe his ears. 

"Well, it's still tagged to the Fifth, right?", Raido now spoke to Genma directly. "We could teleport straight to Tsunade-sama." 

"Over that distance? With this many passengers? You're out of your mind." Genma was stunned at Raido's suggestion, rubbing his temples. "Besides, we can't do it without Iwashi-chan anyways." 

Raido considered it for a second, thinking of the younger ninja that was the third member of the former Hokage Guard Platoon. "Yeah... It needs at least three people to perform after all." He rubbed over the scar on his nose, then looked up to focus Aoba. Aoba started sweating nervously. "Look, Aoba. We'll teach you the seals and you'll be our third man."

Aoba looked incredibly stressed out at this idea. 

"Couldn't we help you?", Kotetsu asked, pointing at himself and Izumo. 

"You could give us some more chakra, we're gonna need a lot of that for such a large distance. But it's easier to sync the jutsu with people you're familiar with.", Genma explained, still considering the idea as a whole. "But Raido, are you sure you can manage this? I'm not gonna lie, you're missing a lot of blood right now."

"I'm fi-...", Raido started, but the noted Genmas genuinely worried expression. I was no use lying to him. "Look, I'm not sure, but we don't really have any other options, right?"

Genma really didn't like this, but eventually agreed. "Fine. Aoba, how much time do we have left?"

"About three and a half minutes. I can sense their chakra signatures already."

"Shit. Alright, get over here, I'll teach you the seals." Genma squatted down with Aoba to go over the complex jutsu and the necessary hand seals. It wasn't a very good solution, to learn a jutsu like this on the second, but Raido knew Aoba had very fine chakra control and was usually quick to catch on. He and Genma would have to bear most of the mental load of the technique. It was a delicate Jutsu, and required absolute control and synchronization with your teammates. 

"What should we do, Captain Raido?" Izumo asked him. 

Raido pushed himself up to his feet, swaying a bit. His vision blacked out for a second due to the sudden motion, but he managed to stay upright. "Which of you is better at explaining what happened? We need someone to get help when we arrive, someone who can keep a calm mind." Raido doubted he would be doing great after spending a massive amount of chakra in his current state. If they even could handle the Jutsu and arrive at Konoha. 

Izumo and Kotetsu looked at each other for a second. "I'll do it.", Izumo then answered promptly.

"Oi..:" Kotetsu jabbed at him with his elbow. 

"Alright. Kotetsu, go and share some of your chakra with Aoba, he needs it the most since he was so low earlier." Passing chakra onto someone else wasn't very efficient, but It would help a little. It was a bit like giving CPR to someone. Second-hand air would never have as much oxygen as air breathed by the person themselves, and it was the same with chakra. Kotetsu nodded and walked over to Aoba. "Izumo, you carry Yamato."

"Sorry...", Yamato muttered, leaning onto Izumo heavily as he was pulled up.

While waiting for Genma and Aoba to finish, Raido already started molding chakra. It filled him, forming a warm pit in his stomach, blistering with energy. It was comforting, and helped distracting him from the searing pain just below. 

Finally, Genma finished his breakdown of the Jutsu. Kotetsu had spent as much chakra as he could and gave it to Aoba, leaving the dark-haired ninja visibly exhausted. Genma ordered Kotetsu, Izumo and Yamato to stand close to each other, so Aoba, Raido, and himself could comfortably form a circle around them. 

"Alright, keep your arms and legs in.", Raido advised them.

"We don't wanna leave anything here.", Genma said with a hint of dark humor, while he was concentrating his chakra. 

"We should hurry. They're close.", Aoba said. Raido had never experienced him this nervous. 

"Hey, man. It's gonna be fine.", he tried to comfort him. He put a hand over the cut on his belly. Warm blood clung to the bandages. "It may be intimidating, but we'll manage. Genma and me will guide the Jutsu into the right direction, just let yourself get pulled along."

Genma gave a short nod. Aoba acknowledged it, taking a deep breath before steadying his feet on his position in their little triangle. 

Izumo perked up. He was holding up Yamato by his armpits and Kotetsu was leaning against him heavily. "Do you hear that?"

All of them went silent for a second. They could hear the distant tapping of feet and rustling of leaves. _They are coming._

"Let's just go. First the seals, then we build up and circulate chakra until it's force is strong enough to teleport us.", Genma said, mostly to remind Aoba of the procedure. He put a new senbon between his lips before stepping forward. 

Raido nodded and stretched his arms outwards. Aoba and Genma did the same, so the other three were trapped in a circle between their joined hands. Raido straightened his back. His wound was a pulsating pain, but he pushed it far into the back of his mind. He needed all of his concentration now. The three shared a glance between them, then simultaneously started forming the hand signs. Each of them formed half a seal with each hand, which was completed by the person next to them. Raido put all of his focus in the conjoined hand seals. 

They managed to finish the sequence of 12 seals without messing up and ended with a distinct seal. Each had their thumbs, index and middle fingers stretched out, touching the fingers of their neighbor and completing the seal. Energy started rushing between them. Raido almost went down on his knees due to the sheer pressure of chakra they were generating. Raido had a single thing on his mind: sensing their destination, the tag that was attached to Tsunade, invisible to the regular eye. He saw it before his inner eye, or rather felt it, since his vision started going black. They were still keeping up the circle of energy, still adding more chakra until the area between them felt so heavy and tense, that even Kotetsu and Izumo - who were not particularly trained in sensing chakra - had to grit their teeth to stand the force of the jutsu. 

Raido felt himself going numb. His hearing was muffled. It was like he was watching his own body from a third-person perspective. He heard Izumo shout something. Raido saw ninja breaking trough the foliage and trees around them, yelling, throwing shuriken, but it felt distant and somehow like he wasn't personally involved at all. He felt a light touch on his arm and looked down, seeing a kunai stuck in it. _Huh_. He looked up again. Chakra was now visibly whipping between them. The enemy ninja were closing in, coming nearer and nearer. They were 5 meters away. Then they were 3 meters away. _Just a bit more._ Raido poured his remaining chakra sources into their conjoined Jutsu, feeling the power filling him and tearing at him at the same time, trying to escape their grasp.

He looked into Genmas eyes. Genma had the same expression as him, spaced out and incredibly focused at the same time. They knew they needed all of the chakra they had available, or they wouldn't make the jump. The enemies were 2 meters away. 

A blink of Genmas eyes. 

A gasp of breath from Aobas side.

A tiny twitch in the hands he touched.

Completely synchronized, Raido and Genma activated the Flying Thunder Formation at the same time, with Aoba following their lead. 

Raido felt the chakra being unleashed, yanking him off his feet and accelerating his body in what felt like every direction at once. It pulled at the wound in his midsection, making it burst into all flavors of pain again. The last thing he saw was the angry, distorted face of one of the enemy ninja, his Kunai stretched out towards Raido's face. The last thing he felt was gravity increasing on him to unbearable amounts, before releasing him. 

Instantly, the group flickered out of sight, leaving not a single trace.


	9. Tsunade is having a perfectly normal day

It was a peaceful afternoon in Konoha. The sun was wandering over the Horizon, and people were going along their business. Tsunade was currently in a bar in the village, enjoying a drink. She was joined by Shizune, who had been on a lot of missions lately and wanted to catch up with her again. The women had already had a few drinks each, and were laughing and chatting lively. At some point, they had been joined by Tenten and Lee, who seemed kind of lost without Guy constantly around them with his chaotic youthful energy. He was still recovering in the hospital. Tenten and Lee didn't seem to let that hold them down, though, or maybe they were trying to distract themselves. Tenten was currently mostly occupied with preventing Lee from intentionally or unintentionally drinking alcohol, much to the amusement of the two older women.

All of them were in a good mood. Lee was his usual self, fussing around and telling stories about his training. Tenten was, as usual, pretty exasperated at her teammates energy, but was clearly happy to be there with her friend. Shizune was glad to have some downtime from her missions, and was enjoying the company of the younger ninja. Tsunade was just glad to see them in good spirits. 

She leaned back, taking another sip from her cup of sake. This was nice. 

However, the afternoon was suddenly a lot less nice when a heap of people appeared in front of her out of thin air and crashed down onto the table between the group. Tsunade jumped up reflexively, and so did the others. 

"Wha-...?!" Shizune grabbed her chest in surprise. Tentens reflex had been to draw a weapon in the break of a second, and Lee was looking just as ready to defend himself.

Tsunade stared at the mess in shock. In front of her was a giant pile of Jonin and Chuunin. It took her a second to realize all of them were wearing Konoha attire and Konoha forehead protectors, but this realization made her heart sink as she started assessing the situation. They all looked horrible, without exception. 

"Uh... sorry, Tsunade-sama...", a single voice came out of the center of the newcomers. It was Izumo. He clung onto Yamato, holding him up. Kotetsu was right by his side, as usual, leaning onto his partner heavily. Izumo was green in his face, looking like he was about to throw up, and seemed pretty beaten up in general. He was, however, still the one of the group who looked the 'healthiest', and the only one who seemed responsive, really. 

Kotetsu was totally exhausted, desperately grabbing onto Izumos vest in an attempt to keep himself on his feet. He seemed dizzy and was holding his head, breathing to calm himself down. Yamato was struggling to get to his feet, but his movements were slow and insecure. He had bandages all over him and barely managed to keep his eyes open. The other three people were straight up passed out and didn't move at all. Tsunade took a second to identify them as Genma, Aoba and Raido. They laid there motionless, taking up the entire space of the - now broken - bar table. Each of them was riddled with kunai and shuriken. Genma, who was the only of them not lying with his face down on the floor, looked like he hadn't slept enough in days. They all were pale. 

Tsunade saw a puddle of blood forming at the bottom of the jumble of ninja. This was nothing unusual considering their state, but Tsunades eyes widened in shock when she realized that most of the blood was actually just from Raido, who laid at the very bottom of the pile and had a bandage around his midsection, already hopelessly soaked with blood. The six of them were all lying over each other, forming a mess of limbs and injuries. 

"What the fuck, guys.", Tsunade mumbled in her breath before she jumped into action.


	10. Raido gets yelled at

Raido slowly drifted back into consciousness and immediately tried to open his eyes. They were blinded by the stark white ceilings of what he knew to be a Konoha Hospital room. He'd been there enough times already. Raido expected all kinds of pain to kick in, but there was nothing except a very distant headache and a dull sting in his side. _Huh, must be painkillers._ , he thought, slowly. He turned his head to the side and a wave of relief washed over him. 

On the bed next to him was Genma, in a half sitting position, propped up on a bunch of pillows. He was talking to Aoba, who was sitting on the foot end of Genmas bed with his own blanket wrapped around him. Their voices calmed Raido down. He was glad they were okay. Genma's back was lightly wrapped in bandages, and both of them had smaller band-aids all over them, but other than that they looked a lot better already. They were wearing loose hospital gowns, as you would expect in a hospital. 

Raido lifted his head a tiny bit to see the other beds. Opposite to him was Yamato, who was sitting up, reading a book quietly. He had an IV drip next to him, and bandages around his head and shoulder. Someone put his forehead protector next to him on the night stand, as well as a small potted plant. Izumo and Kotetsu were both on the middle bed. Izumo was tucked in the covers, his only visible injury his badly bruised neck and throat. Kotetsu was lying down across him, spreading over his lap. He looked bored. 

"Raido! You're awake.", Genma lifted a hand in greeting as he noticed him being awake.

"Yo." Raido shot him a weak smile. 

"How are you doing?"

"Uh..." Raido looked down at himself. How _was_ he doing? He had a slight headache, probably from the aftereffects of chakra exhaustion. His muscles were sore and he was feeling a bit loopy. He noticed a few new wounds he didn't remember getting, each wrapped in bandages. One on his lower arm, his shoulder, his thigh. There was a small band-aid in his face on his cheek. He also had an IV drip, leading to his elbow pit. And, of course, his torso was thickly wrapped in bandages and gauze. He couldn't see the extent of it, but the heavy wrappings made moving pretty hard. They were clean, so at least there wasn't any blood seeping trough anymore, but he still felt a distant, throbbing pain. He poked the bandages, intriguingly. It hurt a bit, but he assumed he was still on painkillers, so it was kinda hard to judge.

"Eh, i'll probably be fine." He shrugged.

"Well yeah, one or two more scars wont make you any uglier.", Genma teased him. 

Raido threw his pillow after him, but his weak arms only managed to carry it into the space between the two hospital beds. 

"What happened?", he then asked. He was still disoriented from waking up in a different location than he remembered passing out in. Or didn't really remember, in his case.

Aoba mercifully decided to fill him in. "Remember the Flying Thunder Formation Jutsu? Somehow, we managed to pull it off. Izumo said we landed straight on top of the bar table Tsunade-sama had just been drinking at." Aoba grinned sheepishly. "Apparently she was pretty freaked out, but got us in the hospital quickly. Shizune also helped, we were lucky we arrived at so many skilled medi-nins."

"You almost bled out." Genma added a bit more serious. "You were in the worst condition out of all of us. Well, still are. You were in intensive care for the first day before you were stable enough to be put here with us. We've been here for almost two days."

"Oh damn.", Raido murmured, slightly impressed. At the same time, he already started stressing about all the things that he would presumably have to catch up with. Paperwork, his groceries, what was going on in the village... _Well, I'll probably have to stay in a few more days anyways..._ , he realized as he tried to stretch to reach the glass of water next to him and faltered in pain.

"Oh by the way, the Fifth is really fucking pissed at us.", Kotetsu said from the other side of the room, apparently amused by this. 

"I gave her a summary on what happened after we got you all in the hospital." Izumo shuddered at the memory. 

"She was here just two hours ago. She was... uh..." Kotetsu was at a loss for words.

Aoba scoffed, turning towards Genma now. "She yelled for ages. It was pretty bad."

Yamato listened to the conversation idly, nodding at the mention of Tsunades anger.

Genma's typical smirky grin snuck onto his face. "I know, i just pretended to be asleep."

"You whAT?!" Aoba punched him in the shoulder. "I got all the blame for everything earlier because you and Raido were still unconscious, or at least that's what i had thought! I covered for you! Face your judgement like a man, will you?!"

"Ow. Ow! Stop hurting poor, innocent, injured citizens, you heathen!" Genma laughed, trying to shield himself.

"Innocent my ass! You left me out here all alone!"

Raido snickered at their squabbling. In a content mood, he delicately sat up more and propped his chin into his hand. "So, did anything else happen?", he asked Yamato, who seemed the least preoccupied at the moment. 

"Kakashi-senpai was here earlier when i woke up.", Yamato offered, thinking of anything else. "Also, Tsunade checked up on all of us. Kotetsu and Izumo can leave this afternoon, but the rest of us has to stay in one or two more days because of chakra exhaustion. As for you, well, i think they will probably soon come to do a check-up now that you're awake."

Raido nodded. "How are you feeling?"

Yamato smiled bitterly. "I've been trough worse."

"Yeah, same here.", Raido rubbed over his scarred cheek. "Could they do something about the poison?"

"I mostly dissipated by itself after not being directly injected anymore. Shizune and Sakura managed to create an antidote, though, after analyzing the Kunai they used to poison me. You guys took it back home, apparently. I think... it won't have any long-lasting effects, is what they said. I just have to heal now."

"That's a relief." Raido gave him a small, genuine smile. "I'm glad you're back in the village, now."

Yamato wanted to reply something, but their conversation was suddenly interrupted as the door slammed open, startling each of the patients. 

"Aha! You're awake!" Genma instinctively tried to take cover behind Aoba as he was faced with Tsunade angrily pointing at him. It wasn't much use, though, as she crossed the room in a few very determined steps and grasped him at his collar. "Genma Shiranui, do you have any idea what you are doing? How could you let Aoba and especially Raido perform the Flying Thunder Technique in their states! Raido could have died!"

Genma gave her a nervous smile, trying to calm her down. "Actually... Tsunade-sama, you see..."

"Ugh! Spare me your jokes, Genma!"

Raido considered for a second to let Genma squirm a bit more, as payback for all the times he made fun of him, but Tsunade seemed really short-tempered right now. "Tsunade-sama, it was my own idea to use the Flying Thunder Formation.", he said calmly, his voice still weak. He was fairly certain Tsunade wouldn't hurt a seriously injured patient, but even his determination faltered a bit when she snapped her head up and glared at him. 

"God, you're as stupid as ever." She let go of Genma, who gulped in relief. "The whole lot of you." She walked over to Raido's bed, who tensed a bit. Her gaze was a bit less stern when she inspected him. "Here, let me see." She held her hands over Raido's midsection, soothing green chakra radiating from them. Raido waited patiently until she was done, noting that Shizune had followed her trough the door. 

Finally, Tsunade straightened her back again and looked at him. "Well, your wound is not inflamed or anything, so it will be fine. Three or four more days and you're good to go, unless-" she jabbed a finger in his direction "Unless you go and do something dumb like that again. You might not be so lucky next time."

"Yes, ma'am.", Raido complied, glad to be let off so easily. Maybe almost bleeding to death was enough punishment for his stubbornness in Tsunades eyes. 

All of them looked up as someone else entered the room. It was Kakashi, who calmly raised a hand in greeting. "Yo, everyone-"

He was, however, not able to finish his thought as the door and a person slammed into him at high speeds. Raido couldn't possibly mistake the penetrating voice and the bright blonde shock of hair for anyone else than Naruto. "Captain Yamato!", the young ninja yelled, rushing over to Yamato's bed. "Oh, and you guys.", he added as he noticed the other patients in the room. 

"Gee, thanks.", Genma muttered. 

Aoba seemed even more offended. "Knowing him, i'd be surprised if he even remembered my name..."

Raido remembered that Aoba had traveled with Yamato and Naruto on their mission to keep Naruto away from the war. He himself never really had any significant interaction with the 'hero of the leaf', so he wasn't particularly surprised that Naruto didn't really recognize him. The kid was a bit dense sometimes. He currently fussed over Yamato, with Kakashi joining him to ask his friend how he was doing. _Or rather, the Sixth Hokage._ , Raido corrected himself. Yamato seemed flustered by all the attention.

"Oi Naruto! This is a hospital, you know!", Tsunade reprimanded the boy, walking over in his direction. "These people need calm and peace! Besides, you still have to rest yourself."

"Buut, grandma Tsunade, im fiiine!", Naruto whined, flailing with his one arm as Tsunade attempted to drag him out of the room. 

Genma let out a laugh. "He's the only one who would ever dare to call her that.", me muttered so only Aoba and Raido could hear it. Aoba agreed, while Raido grinned to himself. 

Tsunade didn't get far in her attempt to throw out Naruto, as the door was currently occupied with several people trying to go though at once. Guy in his wheelchair was at the front, followed by Kurenai. Both of them made a beeline to Genma, Aoba, and Raido, trailing their students behind them. Raido was surprised. 

"Guys, this is a hospital!", Shizunes voice was heard distantly by the door, drowned out by worried chattering of the visitors. 

"Genma, my old pal! How are you doing!", Guy loudly announced his presence, slapping Genma on the back so hard his senbon fell out of his mouth. He could only wheeze in answer as Guy had hit right on his injured back. Guy didn't seem to notice and went on to Aoba, who managed to dodge a no doubt bone-crushing hug by standing on Genmas bed. "Aoba, bursting with youth as always! It's good to see you!"

Kurenai walked over to Raido meanwhile. "Hey Raido. We heard you guys were awake so we thought we'd drop in." She had a gentle smile at her former teammate.

Raido reciprocated it. "Thank you, Kurenai."

Hinata was behind her, handing him a basket of fruit. "Please get well soon, Raido-san.", she said in her gentle voice. She was, however, distracted by the sight of Naruto struggling against Tsunade, who still tried to reach the door. Shino stood behind his team, nodding silently. Kiba and his dog agreed as well. "Yeah, get better soon!" "Woof!"

Raido noticed Kurenai had brought more gift baskets and was now giving them to all the patients. Tenten currently tried to keep Guy from bothering Genma and Aoba and further, while Lee begged them on his knees to get better. 

The room was becoming more and more crowded. Raido could see the Ino-Shika-Cho trio over at Kotetsu and Izumo's bed, with Shikamaru chatting with them. He had no hopes of hearing ther convo over the loud talking that filled the room, Narutos desperate yells, and the constant opening and closing of the door as more people came in. 

"Captain Yamato, did the antidote work?", Sakura just asked Yamato.

"Oh, yeah... yes, thank you." Yamato seemed thoroughly befuddled by so many people caring about him. Raido saw two ANBU members standing near his bed, taking part in the conversation between Yamato and Kakashi, and one more outside the opened window. _When did they come in?_

Raido looked around to see who else was there, but it was increasingly difficult to see anything with this many people standing crowded around the patients' beds. He thought he'd seen Iwashi's worried face for a second, but wasn't quite sure. His head still hurt, and all the noise was ringing in his ears. Nonetheless, he felt his heart warm at the sight of all these ninja of their village coming to see their friends. It made him feel at home, and once more he was confirmed in his will to fight for Konoha. 

"Oh, that DOES it!", Raido heard Tsunade shout as Iruka tried to enter the room - unsuccessfully as it was already filled to the brim. Tsunade stomped her feet in anger, the loud cracking of the floor tiles alerting and shutting up everyone in the room. Dozens of heads turned and stared at her.

"Everyone, OUT!!", she pointed to the door, accidentally hitting Naruto over the head. "These people need REST! You can visit later, in groups of three people MAXIMUM, but i need to check on my patients NOW." No one dared to talk back to her. The crowd left the room, murmuring "See you later!"s and "Get some rest!"s in the process. The room slowly cleared, until only Tsunade and Shizune were left. Raido let out a relieved sigh. 

Tsunade shooed the ANBU members away who were still staring in trough the windows, then closed the curtains to give her patients some privacy. "Sheesh, seriously...", she let out an exasperated breath. 

"Sorry, Fifth, i guess i'm just that popular.", Genma showed one of his lopsided grins. 

"Shut up, Genma.", Tsunade answered, despite being amused. She watched as Aoba climbed down from Genmas bed and signaled him to get back to his own. 

Shizune walked over to Kotetsu and Izumo, explaining that they could leave the hospital now. She signed some paperwork and dumped it onto their bed. Tsunade looked over the other patients.

"I'll check back in with you in the evening. Everyone, get some rest. Especially you Raido." She pointed at Raido, still clearly annoyed with his actions on the mission. "Make sure you get some sleep." 

Raido agreed.


	11. Raido escalates a party

A few days later, Raido was finally released from the hospital, being the last of the group. He still had a light bandage wrapped around his torso, as the stitched up cut was still sore, but he felt way better. His head was clear as he finally breathed in the cool winter air in front of the hospital, and he couldn't wait to get back to work in a few days. It was a nice, sunny day, and Raido stretched his arms after being cooped up in a hospital bed for so long. 

"Ah, finally. I thought you'd stay in there as a precaution for the next time you get hurt." He was met with a familiar, mocking tone. Sure enough, when he turned around, Genma was leaning against the gate in front of the hospital. He had obviously been waiting for him. Genma was looking way better. He was in casual clothes, and traded his forehead protector for a regular bandana tied in the same fashion. He lazily chewed on his senbon as he joined Raido and they started walking towards the district where they both had their apartments. 

"I'm not yet cleared for training for two more days.", Raido informed him, enjoying the sun on his face. 

Genma hummed in agreement. "Well, have you been cleared to party? Izumo and Kotetsu invited all of us to celebrate getting out of the hospital."

"Oh?" Raido considered it. "I'm still a week on rehabilitation leave, so sure."

"Are you planning an entire week for recovering from a hangover? Again?", Genma teased him. 

"That was _one_ time, Genma. One time!" Raido jabbed at Genmas ribs with his elbow. 

"Aah, help! Domestic violence!"

Raido laughed. "Anyways, what's the plan? Can i take a shower beforehand? Maybe i still have something to drink left at home as well."

"We're meeting at the Onsen first, at five. Then we're going to Izumo and Kotetsu's apartment."

"Apartment? Are they...?"

"They are _roommates_.", Genma said with a suggestive eyebrow waggle. 

Raido shrugged sheepishly and fished his apartment keys out of his battered flak jackets. They had arrived at the large building they were living in. He was already looking forward to the Onsen, that sounded like a great idea. 

"Alright, i'll pick you up later.", Genma said, unlocking his own apartment. "By the way, need anything to eat? I still have leftovers from lunch today."

"Ugh, yes please. I'm starving."

Raido waited until Genma had given him a small bowl with rice and chicken left from his lunch, then said goodbye for the moment and walked over to his apartment, which was three doors down the hallway. He ate, washed his face, and changed into something more comfortable, dropping his dirty and bloody uniform from the mission in front of the washing machine. He decided to leave his forehead protector at home. Sure, it gave him confidence, but he was off duty now and it was time to relax. He quickly gathered together all of the alcohol left in his small apartment and a towel for the onsen. 

In the afternoon, Genma dutifully knocked on his door, then let himself in with his spare key. They left for the onsen, being joined by Aoba in front of it. Izumo and Kotetsu were already inside. The three Tokubetsu Jonin introduced the younger two to their favorite public bath activity, which was picking out a scar from their friends body and making up a bullshit story about how they got it. As the evening went on, the stories were getting longer and more dumb by the minute. Yamato joined them at some point, and Raido enjoyed relaxing in the pleasantly hot water. 

Later they made their way to Izumo and Kotetsu's apartment, stumbling across Iwashi across the way. He was happy to see his fellow Hokage Guard team members out of the hospital, and quickly joined them after Raido invited him to come along. Iwashi asked Genma if Raido had ever returned from a mission without being critically injured, and Genma gleefully denied. They kept mocking each other the rest of the way. 

They arrived at Izumo and Kotetsu's apartment, where they crowded the living room and started drinking. Iruka swung by for a drink, giving his apologies to Yamato for getting kidnapped during his school trip, who just waved it off. Guy also swung by for a drink, and then another, and then another, until he decided to stay. This was where the party really picked up. If by 'picked up' you meant 'escalated horribly since Raido was dumb enough to let himself be challenge to a drinking competition by Guy, and both of them are too stubborn to give up at a reasonable time'. 

 

The next morning, Raido woke up with a splitting headache and left with just his pants, but he was filled with warm feelings for his friends and peace of mind. Said friends were lying all around and over him in a giant pile in similar states. Aoba clung to Raido's leg in his sleep. Genma was still half on a chair, his legs resting on Raidos chest. Guy was hardly wearing any clothes anymore, while Iwashi was awake - sort of - and seemed greatly embarrassed. Yamato was lying curled up near the wall, small branches sprouting out of the wood and covering his body. Izumo and Kotetsu were lying near to Raido, helplessly crushed in the pile of Jonin. For whatever reason, their trademark syrup field covered a good portion of the room. Clothes on the floor suggested there were even more people scattered throughout the flat. Raido smiled and decided to doze for a few more minutes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (oh my god they were roommates)  
> Firstly, thank you so much for reading!  
> This started out as just another daydream about these characters (as i suppose most fics do), and im surprised i actually managed to power trough it before i lost interest.  
> There are a lot of firsts in here for me. (writing a longer fic, writing something thats worth splitting into chapters, actually finishing a longer fic, actual planning and editing, writing dialogue for large groups of characters (seriously. how do people manage? you can't always have half the cast passed out)). 20k words is a lot for me, personally, and i learned many things about myself as a writer during this. 
> 
> If you want to take something away from this story, please 1. drink responsibly, 2. dont bleed to death and 3. if you do, please remember to inform your friends beforehand.
> 
> Anyways, i hope you enjoyed it, and have a great day!


	12. Bonus Chapter: Artwork

Since i drew a few things for this fic, here's a little bonus!

They are mostly doodles.

 

 

 Belongs to Chapter 2

 Chapter 6, or 'Genma is absoluetely done with Raido's bs'

Aaand this is somewhere in Chapter 8.

 

Again, thank you for reading! (I was thinking about adding the pictures to the appropriate places in the fic, but i think that would maybe disrupt the story a bit too much...)


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